Momentum
by Tanya Lilac
Summary: [For Ameryume at the LJ NejiTen Gift Exchange, 2007] 'I can tell you're going to fall for it again... You’re my girlfriend and you’ve been dying to kiss me since you got angry last week.'


**For ameryume at the LiveJournal 2007 NejiTen Gift Exchange- I hope you like it . **

**Momentum**

Tenten was fuming (_yet again_, she had to add) at Hyuuga Neji.

Their disputes always began with something trivial- a snide remark here, a meaningful glance there… and then the tension always snowballed and hit the two of them in the face- and there was never anything that either of them could do about what happened after.

"You're just such a chauvinistic bigot who thinks of nothing other than your own social gain and ego!" Tenten glared.

"You said that last time." Neji's voice was quiet and tinged, somewhat, with amusement.

"Well I'm even angrier at you this time, and I-" She stopped talking.

As she stormed off, the wind carried her wrathful words to his ears.

"Prodigy, my _ass_ … Neji is _so dead._"

-----------------

It's funny, that feeling you get when your fate is sealed. For Neji and Tenten, it was summed up in a mere eight words, spoken by their Hokage.

"Here are your itineraries … for the Christmas Benefit."

Tenten and Neji exchanged an angry glance.

-----------------

Team Gai had been assigned a mission- as had all other shinobi of Konoha- to help at the annual Christmas Benefit. It was a fun week arranged by the Hokage (this year, the planning had fell mostly on Shizune) for all the children of Konoha starting on Christmas Eve.

Dressed as an elf, Tenten had nothing complain about when she saw Neji being Santa.

"Why are _you_ Santa?" she asked him quietly.

"Don't ask _me_." Neji replied gruffly as they sat down in the massive chair. "This is _my_ chair, Miss-Elf."

Tenten's eyes narrowed.

"I _hate _you." She mouthed.

"You made that clear last week," Neji retorted.

As soon as the fake velvet rope was dropped, a young boy ran straight over to Neji and jumped on his lap. Neji scowled and remained expressionless after the boy jumped off his lap, bawled his eyes out and then proceeded to kick Neji in the shins and run off to Tenten.

Tenten picked up the young boy and whispered something in his ear with a smile on her face. She walked over to Neji and elbowed him none too gently.

"Santa, you need to be nice to the children who have come to see you!" She admonished him, a fake smile on her face. Neji just glared back with his distinctively coloured eyes. It was like the snow around them- seemingly soft but icy to the touch. "Come on, Hide wants to get a hug."

Hide was around two years old, with black hair and blue eyes. He held out his hands to Neji who, after a moment of hesitation, grudgingly took the child from Tenten's arms. Together, the two of them posed for a picture, a big smile on Hide's face. Tenten kept a copy of the photo in her top drawer and often looked back on it with fond (and sometimes, not-so fond) nostalgia.

As word got out about the new 'elf', more and more people were attracted to the Benefit – most significantly in the adolescent male age group.

Whenever their three hour break came around from eleven to two, Neji, Tenten and Lee retreated to the staff room and changed back into their normal clothes for a while. On the third day, Tenten was swamped by boys the moment she left the room and carried off, leaving Lee and Neji alone.

"You're worried, aren't you?" Lee asked with a grin.

"She can handle herself." Neji replied gruffly.

"Jealous?"

The word hung in the air and neither spoke for some time.

"Whatever," Neji shrugged it off.

"You two are fighting again, aren't you?"

"And if we are?"

"Seriously, you two need to work out your is-"

Tenten burst into the room with a stormy look on her face, grumbling about 'prepubescent boys who knew nothing about women.' Upon seeing Neji still sitting at the table, she fell silent.

A few minutes passed and Lee stood with a wave.

"I think I'll go and find someone to talk to." He left the room, and Neji crossed his arms as he glared sullenly at the coffee mug in front of him.

"Fancy seeing you here," he greeted sarcastically.

"Save it, Hyuuga!" Tenten snapped as she unwrapped a lollypop from the fluoro bowl in the centre of the baby pink card table. She sighed as the sugar hit her system, releasing much needed endorphins.

"Bad day?"

"In the space of five minutes _in which you did not help me_, I was surrounded by fan boys between the ages of twelve and twenty."

"Add about a hundred times the amount of girls, and you have my life." Neji smirked.

"I don't think it's something to brag about, Neji." Tenten growled roughly.

"Well, this is the longest conversation we've had in a week. You're not thinking of making up with me, are you?"

Neji chucked at his own sarcasm and Tenten glared at him, pegging the sweet right at his head. Unfortunately for him, it was already wet and stuck valiantly to his glossy black locks.

The glare on Tenten's face was transformed into a somewhat malicious yet gleeful smile.

The Hyuuga was lost for words and the pair was frozen for several long moments.

Tenten laughed nervously as she realised what they'd have to do to get it out.

"You… you _evil woman_!" Neji spat, and jumped up from the table as he toppled it over, spilling the coffee everywhere.

Tenten squeaked and tried to open the door, but it was mysteriously stuck… or locked.

A rather colourful string of curses erupted from her mouth as she leapt to the other side of the room, onto the cupboard doors, a few jars of powders spilling onto the floor as she opened the cabinets.

"I can't believe you even-"

"Neji, it was an-"

"Accident?" Neji yelled. "You call this an-"

"Accident?" Tenten finished. "Yes, I do!"

She picked up a ceramic cup and hurled it at him.

It shattered on the wall behind his head.

"What's your problem?" Neji demanded.

"It's _you_, as always."

"What is that even supposed to mean?" Neji asked, running up to her. As he punched her, she flicked up a mug from the counter and it hit him on the side of the head with an equal force. Tenten darted to the other side of the room once again, hiding behind the table, her gaze flicking to the tiny window in the wall above her head.

"You're not getting away this time!"

"I know I'm not- you're not, either!" Tenten yelled back.

It was always like this.

"Why don't you ever just come out and apologise first?"

"What? So is this fight _my _fault?"

"Yes, it is!" Tenten snapped, grabbing the bowl of sweets. She sucked on a toffee for a few seconds before throwing it at the prodigy.

"This is beyond childish!" Neji batted away the confectionary and recoiled slightly as it stuck to his jacket sleeve.

"What!?! You were the one who said that 'women's rights were a joke'! I think you deserve every bit of this, you-"

"What? When did I say that?"

"You know you said that," Tenten glared at him. Their arsenal supply was incredibly low.

"Since when?"

"Don't you _dare_ deny it, Neji. It was _last week_!"

The Hyuuga settled into his Jyuuken stance- Tenten recognised it as the Hakke Hyaku Nijuuhachi Shou.

Shit, he was serious about winning this time.

Their eyes met in the incredibly confined cottage and something seemed to spark and ignite within them.

However, Neji's thunderous ire was cut incredibly short when he slipped in the spilt coffee.

The dark haired prodigy fell unconscious as his head hit the ground, and Tenten gave out a frustrated yell that mixed with a disbelieving giggle and snort.

"Don't tell me I have to _drag_ you all the way to the hospital!" She groaned moments later, still unable to decide whether or not she was concerned, angry, frustrated or somewhat happy at the Hyuuga's slip up.

When it became evident that the Hyuuga wasn't just playing dead, the kunoichi crept lightly over to check on him. There was a pulse, and he didn't look too injured. Maybe his pride could have taken a blow, but there wasn't anything to worry about.

"Tenten." The name seemed to roll off his tongue with some difficulty as his eyes opened to slits.

"Look who woke up," Tenten said dismissively, the slight hint of concern in her eyes betraying her impartiality.

He smirked in that all-knowing way, and looked around as he sat up.

"Have you tried opening the door again?"

"Yes," Tenten sighed.

"Is it still locked?"

"It locks from the outside."

"That's good news."

"How so-?"

Tenten had more than figured it out when he kissed her before she could finish her question.

"Do you expect me to kiss you after all of _that_?" she tore away her lips and they looked around at the room once again.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"No way!" She pushed him off her.

"You don't sound very convinced there. What happened to 'kiss and make up'?" Neji stood and brushed off his clothes.

"I can't believe I _fell_ for that last time!"

"Well, I can tell you're going to fall for it again." Neji, winningly, moved closer.

"How?" Tenten asked. Her body language was still hostile.

"You're my girlfriend and you've been dying to kiss me since last week." The prodigy placed a hand on her cheek and leaned in just a little bit closer.

"Egotistic bastard," she muttered, allowing him to catch her lips anyway.

-----------------

Needless to say, the sounds of breaking crockery and a loud argument brought just about every shinobi's attention to the small staff cottage. Shizune opened the door that had clicked shut after Tenten had slammed it and found the two on the floor, lying amidst the broken cups and plates, clinging to the other as if their lives depended on it, joined fully at the lip.

Without further ado, she hauled to two to their feet and pushed them through the crowds by their ears.

"I can't believe you two!" She shouted when they were a safe distance away from curious ears.

"_You_!" She pointed at Neji accusingly. "You begged me to be Santa- you **_begged _**me! And I went against my better judgment, and I _let_ you because there was no one else! I'm just so angry at the two of you I can't even _look _at you right now!"

The medic growled at the young couple some more, but it went through one ear and out the other, and her fury was met with blank faces, tinted with smugness.

She eventually left the pair alone and returned to the fairgrounds to oversee the proceedings once again.

There was a somewhat companionable silence that settled comfortably between the pair.

Neji was the first to break it.

"So what happens next?"

Tenten smiled with a wickedly perverted glee and a delightful shiver tingled its way down Neji's spine.

-----------------

**It's not that great, but I have hardly had any time to work on this; I needed to finish it now before my assessments started…**


End file.
